Worksheet

What Sumer's Clay Tablets Tell Us

Grade 6 history: trace how cuneiform grew from picture signs, read a Sumerian-style ration list and a graph of tablets, and study city-state rivalry.

Grade 6Social StudiesInteractive · Printable

Aligned toHIS.6.2

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Single worksheet
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1 C3 Framework standard
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10 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Social Studies
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students explain how cuneiform changed from picture signs into a writing system and who used it.
Students use a ration list and a graph of tablets to infer why Sumerians wrote.
Students describe rivalry between Sumerian city-states and Sumerian uses of the wheel.

How to use

Read the passage together, then let students work through the ration list and the graph on their own and compare their claims for the last question in pairs.

Curriculum

C3 Framework standard covered

HIS.6.2

Describe Mesopotamia's city-states and Sumerian inventions such as cuneiform writing, the wheel and irrigation.

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What Sumer's Clay Tablets Tell Us

Read records, a ration list and a graph to learn how writing worked in Sumer.

Writing on clay

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

Words Pressed in Clay

1Long before paper, the people of Sumer wrote on clay. Archaeologists have dug up many thousands of clay tablets from Mesopotamian cities such as Ur, Lagash and Nippur. Clay that was dried in the sun or baked can last for thousands of years, so these tablets let historians read what Sumerians themselves recorded.

2The oldest known writing in Sumer comes from the city of Uruk, from about 3200 BCE. At first, signs were simple pictures of things, such as a head of grain, a sheep or a jar of oil, along with marks for numbers. Temple workers used these signs to keep track of goods that came in and went out. Over hundreds of years, scribes began pressing the end of a cut reed into wet clay, which made wedge-shaped signs called cuneiform. Many signs also came to stand for sounds, so writers could spell out names and ideas, not only count objects.

3Becoming a scribe took years of training. Most students were boys from well-off families, and they studied at a school the Sumerians called the edubba, or "tablet house." Students copied signs and word lists again and again, and teachers corrected their mistakes. Trained scribes worked for temples, palaces and merchants. Most other people could not read or write.

4Each city-state, such as Ur, Lagash or Umma, ruled itself, and written records show how often they clashed. Lagash and Umma were neighbors that fought on and off for generations, from about 2500 to 2350 BCE, over farmland and canal water along their border. Rulers of Lagash recorded their side of the conflict on carved stone and clay. Far fewer records give Umma's side. The Lagash records describe Umma as the city that broke the border agreements.

5Clay tablets and art also help historians follow the wheel. Sumerians used a potter's wheel, a flat spinning disk that let a potter shape round pots quickly. By about 3000 BCE, they also put solid wooden wheels on carts and wagons pulled by donkeys or oxen. Sumerian art, such as a decorated box found at Ur, shows wheeled wagons used in war.

According to paragraph 2, what change made it possible for writing to record names and ideas?

A. Signs came to stand for sounds, not only things.
B. Picture signs grew larger and more detailed.
C. Scribes switched from clay tablets to paper.
D. Temples stopped keeping track of their goods.

Based on paragraph 3, why do surviving tablets probably tell us more about temples and palaces than about the lives of ordinary farmers?

A. Clay for tablets was found only inside the cities.
B. The trained writers mostly worked for temples and palaces.
C. Farmers in Sumer grew too little to be worth recording.
D. Farmers wrote their records on tablets that were lost.

Circle the TWO sentences from paragraph 4 that suggest the written record of the Lagash–Umma conflict may be one-sided.

Each city-state, such as Ur, Lagash or Umma, ruled itself, and written records show how often they clashed.Lagash and Umma were neighbors that fought on and off for generations, from about 2500 to 2350 BCE, over farmland and canal water along their border.Rulers of Lagash recorded their side of the conflict on carved stone and clay.Far fewer records give Umma's side.

A temple in Ur needs to move 40 sacks of barley from its fields to its storehouse. Which Sumerian invention from paragraph 5 would help the most?

A. A potter's wheel that spins fast
B. Wedge-shaped cuneiform signs
C. A decorated box like the one at Ur
D. A wagon with solid wooden wheels

Read the records

Use the ration list, the graph and the passage.

Scribes often recorded the barley a temple handed out to its workers each month. The list below is made up for this worksheet, but it follows the style of real Sumerian ration lists. Barley was measured in a unit called the sila, about 1 liter.

A Temple Ration List for One Month
Worker	Barley (sila)
Field worker (man)	60
Weaver (woman)	30
Weaver (woman)	30
Child helper	20
Field worker (man)	60

How much barley does the temple hand out in all on this list? sila

Why would a temple scribe most likely write a list like this every month?

A. To track grain given out so stores would last
B. To measure how long the canals had grown
C. To teach the workers how to read signs
D. To decide which god the city should honor

A museum sorts the 120 Sumerian tablets in its collection by what each one is about. The museum and its numbers are made up for this worksheet.

How many more tablets in the museum are about goods and rations than are letters? more tablets

Which conclusion does the graph best support?

A. Most people in Sumer could read and write.
B. School lessons were the most common tablets.
C. Business records were a main reason to write.
D. Sumerians wrote more stories than laws.

The museum gets six new tablets. Sort each one into the subject on the graph where it belongs.

A count of sheep delivered to the templeOne sign copied ten times, with a teacher's correctionA merchant asks his partner in Ur to send copperA judge's decision about who owns a stolen oxOil handed out to temple weavers this monthA student's copy of a list of tree names

Goods & rations	School lessons	Letters	Laws & courts

10.

Claim: Sumerians developed writing mainly to run their economy, not to tell stories. Do you agree? Use at least two pieces of evidence from the passage, the ration list or the graph, and explain your reasoning.